Changelog:
==========
v1.7.4.4
Bug fixes:
- Fixed a rather nasty bug that would crash Game Launcher on startup,
or slow it down considerably. Thanks to @secondsabre on GitHub
for reporting this bug.
Other:
- Fixed Start Menu links pointing to the old domain
- Removed the bundled documentation, as all information is now
available on the Wiki: http://gamelauncher.info/wiki/
- Start Menu Documentation link now points to the Wiki
v1.7.4.3
Features:
- A function to start a random game in your list has been added.
You can find it under the 'Options'-menu.
Other:
- The option to sort statistics by play time has been disabled
for the time being, as a bug has been found where the statistics
wouldn't work if two games had the same amount of play time.
This will be fixed in a future release.
- The Game Launcher website is now hosted at http://gamelauncher.info/.
- All links within the application have been updated to the new domain.
v1.7.4.2
Features:
- You can now manually check for dead games in the options menu
Bug fixes:
- Fixed the dock not actually launching any games and
just silently failing
- Fixed ampersands showing double in Skype notifications when
a game was stopped
- Fixed ampersands showing double when editing a game
v1.7.4.1
Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bunch of error message that arose from the previous update, sorry
v1.7.4
Features:
- The dead link check introduced in v1.7.2 will now also
detect uninstalled Steam games if an executable for the Steam
game was specified when it was added to Game Launcher.
Bug fixes:
- A major, long running bug has been fixed. Games with launchers
and Steam games with executables associated with them now
correctly record stats and display in Skype notifications.
- Fixed a bug where the parenthesis in the Skype play time
notifications wouldn't be closed; The closing parenthesis
was omitted during transition to the new multi-language
structure of Game Launcher.
Other:
- Fixed a bunch of typos in the changelog.
- Fixed a few late bindings.
v1.7.3
Features:
- You will now get to see the changelog for any new versions
found when checking for updates, in Game Launcher itself.
It will show up with a prompt if you check for updates
manually in the About box, or after pressing 'OK' in
an automatic update notification.
- You can now explore a game's folder by selecting
"Explore game folder" under each game's menu item.
Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug where .NET would throw an error if you tried
to display statistics when there were none recorded.
- Removed code for a left-over feature from before the
new Add Game form was added.
Other:
- Updating will now point you to the Game Launcher website.
- Updating will now quit Game Launcher to prevent installation
problems when the update is being installed.
- The website has received a major overhaul both on the back-
and front-end. It's now easier than ever to download and
check version changes. Download locations changed to SourceForge
per the changes below:
- The hosting for Game Launcher files has been permanently moved
to SourceForge.net, from Google Code. All new updates will be
served from SourceForge, and the Google Code page will be
gradually phased out. Issues have been moved to GitHub.
Source code and version control will remain on GitHub, as
they are now.
In short: Download GL installer from SourceForge;
Download GL source or report bugs on GitHub
This is in response to Google terminating the Downloads
for Google Code projects in January 2014.
This version will be the final version posted on Google Code.
- I didn't even notice it, but Game Launcher's one year
anniversary has come and gone. The project was created on
May 22, 2012, and was prompted by me having a ton of game
icons cluttering up my desktop. Hooray!
v1.7.2
Features:
- Game Launcher will now detect dead links when it is started.
It will then ask you if you want to delete the games that
no longer exist from your game list.
Languages:
- Added Vietnamese language (Trans. by Khoa Pham)
- Added Finnish language (Trans. by Hakkapeliitta)
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a bug where the text in the links in the About
window wouldn't entirely show in some languages.
Other:
- Installer changed to NSIS, as it is much much faster than
the .NET installer. NSIS does not, however, check for
.NET, but an error message will be thrown on app start-up
if .NET does not exist in the environment.
- Game Launcher is now supported by two offers shown to the
user during the installation process. After having spent
a large amount of my free time coding this application
and not receiving a single donation, I saw it necessary
to try to monetize this somehow. I do not want to put
advertisements in the application itself, so you are
now asked to install partner software during installation.
You are NOT required to install this software, but if you
do, it would encourage the continued development of
Game Launcher. None of the offers contain adware, malware
or spyware, and they are easily uninstalled once you no
longer wish to use them. Thank you for supporting
Game Launcher.
v1.7.1
Features:
- You can now change colors and fonts used to render
the main menu! Click 'Theme' under Options.
- A new update notification has been added. If an update
is found, a notification pops up on the bottom right corner
of your screen, asking you to update (if update checking
is enabled in Options).
- New options in the Statistics-window:
* You can now select a desired sort mode
(alphabetically or by time played)
* You can now select whether you want the chart
to be shown in 3D or not. This will affect display
and image saving.
* New selectable color palettes:
+ Cake
+ Chewing Gum
+ Fruit
+ Goldfish
Languages:
- Added Portuguese language (Trans. by Sousa_Software)
- Added Swedish language (Trans. by Harteex)
- Added French language (Trans. by Sanic)
Bugfixes:
- Added some untranslated strings to the translation files
(from the dock's context menu. Thanks to Harteex for
spotting those!)
Known issues with this release:
- If you use a custom theme, you will have to use arrow keys
on your keyboard in order to open sub-menus like Options
and the edit/delete options beneath each game.
Other:
- Rearranged and changed size of controls in the statistics-
window to accommodate the new sorting option mentioned
above.
- An Easter egg has been added. It's your job to find it.
Because you're the hero that the seven seas deserve, but
not the one they need right now. So we'll pillage you.
Because you can take it. Because you're not a hero, you're
a silent landlubber, a watchful shipmate...
A Tanned Swashbuckler.
v1.7
Features:
- Multi-language support is here! The included
languages in this release are: Catalan, English,
Norwegian, German, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin),
Spanish.
(multi-language first introduced in commit 30064ac6e3)
I'm still looking for translators, so if you speak
a language not yet implemented and would like to
contribute, shoot off an e-mail to
retrocrew.djlarz@gmail.com, and I'll send you the
materials required for translation.
Bugfixes
- Fixed some minor bugs here and there, mainly concerning
the new language support, and adapting the rest
of the application to use a framework that simplifies
translation.
(no specific commit)
- Fixed a bug where ampersands (&) in game names would
not be escaped when generating a linkable chart
(making the API think it was a delimiter for a new
parameter, breaking the chart layout).
(commit 6b62ae1f5b)
- Fixed a bug where a starting parenthesis would appear
at the start of a game name in the Statistics-window
(commit 6b62ae1f5b)
- Fixed a bug where the application would throw an error
if the user tried to click 'Add game' in the menu
while an Add Game form was already visible. It will
now put focus on the existing Add Game form instead.
(commit 0bc6947459)
Other:
- Rearranged and resized many controls in most of the
windows, to better fit other languages that may have
longer translations.
(commits ad9559e51a, b386df35bc, 7a1b8a4656,
14cf5d1410, 70c080c38c, 3c0c8397e3, 034bde29c6)
- Source code hosting is moved to GitHub. I will still be
uploading source archives to Google Code as I release new
versions of Game Launcher, but to get the absolutely newest
source, you'll need to visit the project's GitHub page.
https://github.com/xdpirate/GameLauncher/
v1.6.0.5
Bugfixes:
- The Statistics-window now properly updates after
having had data entries removed.
- Fixed a problem where games with ampersands in their
names would show a double ampersand in the Statistics-
window and the Clear data-window for Statistics.
- The "Save as image" button in the Statistics-window
now properly throws an error message if something
fails while saving the image. The success-message
also looks nicer.
Other:
- Reworded the About-form message.
- Fixed a couple of typos and grammar errors.
v1.6.0.4
* This is more or less a bug fix/maintenance update
due to the application being more or less feature
complete. Still taking feature requests, though,
post it in the Google-code issues tracker or via
e-mail retrocrew.djlarz@gmail.com.
- Decreased application update check frequency to
once every two hours due to the reduced frequency of
updates released.
- Increased process monitor (used for games with launchers
and Steam games) update frequency to once every second
(was 10).
- The process monitor will now look for the process
of a game launched with a launcher or via Steam
for 5 minutes before it stops looking (was way more
due to an arithmetic error). This should hopefully
fix some issues where a game launched with a launcher
would fail to register, and play time couldn't
be tracked.
v1.6.0.3
- Fixed a bug where game icons would be slightly
stretched.
- Aspect ratio in icons will now be preserved.
- Entries in the Statistics-window are now sorted
alphabetically.
- Entries in the Remove window for Statistics are now
sorted alphabetically.
- Removed the gray color in the "Bright Pastel" palette
in the Statistics-window, as it didn't fit the theme.
# Technical: CustomInputBox was removed as it wasn't
being used by anything anymore.
v1.6.0.2
- Games are now run from a separate thread.
- The tray icon for Game Launcher now shows a loading
message when it is hovered over while initially loading.
- "Clear data" in the Statistics-window now allows you to
selectively remove games you no longer wish to have
included in the statistics.
- Bug fix: The main menu now closes immediately after a
game is launched.
- Bug fix: Fixed a bug where the shell extension would not
add games correctly due to a coding error.
v1.6.0.1
- Bug fix: When selecting "Get from executable" on a Steam
game with an executable specified would throw an error.
It now behaves as intended.
v1.6
- The biggest update to Game Launcher ever brings a lot of
new functionality, speed and stability to the application.
- Game icons are now cached and saved in \icons and \steamicons
respectively, speeding up GL a lot when it starts.
- A shiny and lovely new Add Game dialog window has been added!
This new dialog will be used for all three methods of adding
games (Options -> Add game, drag'n'drop window and Explorer
integration), and for editing a game's properties.
- You can now specify custom icons for all your games. This can
be done in the new Add Game dialog.
- Editing all aspects of entries is now done via the new
Add Game dialog.
- Games that uses launchers can now be tracked for playtime
in statistics and in Skype notifications. Game Launcher
will search for the main game executable for five minutes
after you have started the launcher. This can be configured
in the new Add Game dialog.
- Steam games can now be tracked for playtime and Skype
notifications by specifying the executable steam uses
to run the game. It will look for the game process for
five minutes after launching the game. This can be configured
in the new Add Game dialog.
- As a result of the new Add Game dialog, the menu items
"Add Steam game", "Edit command-line arguments", "Rename game"
and "Delete command-line arguments" were removed. You can now
edit all this by clicking the new "Edit game" menu item under
each game.
- You can now toggle the auto update check in Preferences.
- The About-window now has a button to check for updates manually.
- Auto update check interval increased from 15 to 30 minutes.
v1.5.1
- Fixed a bug where the the hours shown in the Stats-window would
be wrong if play time exceeded 24 hours. The chart now shows days.
- Reworded "Generate embeddable chart" to "Generate linkable chart"
- "Generate linkable chart" option in Statistics-window greatly
enhanced. It now pops up a window containing a short link for you
to copy or visit instead of automatically opening the link in your
browser.
- "Generate linkable chart" button now shows 'Please wait' while
Game Launcher is generating the linkable chart.
- Generated linkable charts now get painted with the same palette
you've selected in the Stats-window.
- Generated linkable charts now shows your total playing time.
- Stats window now shows your total playing time.
- About-window greatly fleshed out. Now contains a list of libraries
and tools used in Game Launcher. Also contains the standard
GNU GPL license notice.
# Technical: A large number of potential casting errors fixed,
along with a few late bindings (Note: not all late bindings are fixed
as some are necessary to parse the context menu used for the main game
list. This will be addressed in the future.. Probably)
# Technical: The pie chart no longer uses the default ChartColorPalettes,
because their colors cannot be parsed, instead we now use a custom
Color-array and the PaletteCustomColors-property.
v1.5
- Target framework changed from ".NET 4 Client Profile" to just ".NET 4".
This shouldn't affect users with up to date .NET Framework
installations. The setup.exe installer program, will, however, check
if you have the necessary dependencies on your computer.
- Statistics window now contains new options:
* Change label options (Inside, outside, disabled)
* Change the color palette used on the chart
* Toggle the legend
* Clear collected data
* Create embeddable charts for web use (uses Google Image Charts API)
- Statistics window now has a minimum size of 735x540, to avoid elements
flowing onto each other.
- Statistics window title bar text changed to "Game Launcher Playtime
Statistics"
- Fixed a bug where Game Launcher would try to get a game via
command-line when started without any arguments.
- Game Launcher can now be passed "/q" to suppress the balloon tool tip
from appearing when launching the application.
- If Game Launcher is set to run on start-up, it will now start silently,
no balloon tip.
Users who already have this setting enabled will need to disable then
re-enable it for the change to take effect.
- Game Launcher is now able to accept multiple games via the shell
extension/explorer integration. They will be added in sequence,
almost identically to how the drop window works.
- Note: The statistics window doesn't track Steam games, and probably
won't for a long time.
- A new 'Add game'-window exists in the application and in the source code,
but hasn't been made available through the interface yet. This is because
it's only designed, but not rigged or programmed to work with Game Launcher
in any way yet. This new 'Add game'-interface will be completed and
added soon.
v1.4.5
- Instead of fixing bugs, I added statistics! After playing some games, click
the new menu item "Statistics" to view a pie chart, charting your playing time.
You can delete/rename individual entries by modifying registry values in
HKCU\Software\GameLauncher\stats. The values stored are saved as QWORDs containing
the number of seconds the game has been played overall.
v1.4.4-rev5
- Fixed an issue where a Skype notification wouldn't be sent if Skype
was opened after Game Launcher. This might result in a small delay (1 second
or so) when running the first game after launching Skype, since GL must
wait to be attached to Skype before launching the game.
- Cleaned up the code to display playing time in Skype notifications. Instead
of "1 hour(s), 1 minute(s), 1 second(s)", proper pluralisation will now show.
v1.4.4-rev4
- Adding Steam shortcuts via the drag'n'drop window now properly displays
the name of the game to avoid confusion when adding them.
- The name of the Steam game is now shown in the title bar of the Open File
Dialog window when choosing an icon, again to avoid confusion.
v1.4.4-rev3
- Having the dock on top of all other windows is now an option when
you right-click the dock.
- You can now open the dock by double-right-clicking on the tray icon,
aimed at people on laptops or with a 2-button mouse.
v1.4.4-rev2
- Fixed a bug where the dock would temporarily hide when you pressed
Windows+D or clicking the Show Desktop tab on the task bar.
- Removed the readme.rtf-file and added a complete, more in-depth
HTML documentation, available both online and offline.
v1.4.4-rev1
- Fixed a bug where GL wouldn't send a notification to Skype when you
started playing a game.
v1.4.4
- You can now add games to Game Launcher by right-clicking a shortcut
or executable anywhere in Windows Explorer, then clicking
'Add to Game Launcher'. Supported file-types: exe, jar, cmd, bat.
This is an option that's disabled by default, check the Preferences
window in order to enable this functionality.
- A new, pretty input box added. This fixed a bug where the old
input boxes would sometimes appear underneath other application
windows.
v1.4.3
- Added a shiny, new Preferences window!
- Moved the three options previously in the Options sub-menu into
the new Preferences window. Changes now take effect immediately.
- Fixed a bug where the update prompt would infinitely duplicate
itself if left unattended.
v1.4.2-rev4
- Fixed an embarrassing mistake where I left in a dialog box that
shouldn't be there, which was used for debugging purposes.
v1.4.2-rev3
- Game Launcher no longer stops responding while connecting to Skype.
- Game Launcher no longer stops responding while checking for updates.
- Update frequency changed from 30 minutes to 15 minutes (Don't worry,
it collects exactly 4 bytes of data each time, that's about 11 KB a
month of running 24/7).
- Installer now detects and removes previous versions before upgrading.
Your personal preferences, though, will remain intact!
v1.4.2-rev2
- Addressed an issue where the dock wouldn't update when adding
games via the drag'n'drop window.
v1.4.2-rev1
- The dock should now properly update when adding/removing games.
v1.4.2
- Added a sexy dock bar with game icons on it. Middle-click the
tray icon to show the dock! To close the dock, middle-click
the tray icon again, or right-click the dock and click 'Close'.
- You can change the dock's opacity by right-clicking the dock
and clicking 'Change opacity'. This value is stored in the
registry and thus will persist between sessions.
- If the dock's open when you quit Game Launcher, it will open
when you start it again.
- Added an option to wipe all command-line arguments from a
given game.
- Cleaned up, simplified and tweaked a lot of the program's code.
- Re-enabled application framework. This was disabled in a very
early build of Game Launcher, and I never got around to reverting
it back when I didn't need it anymore. For the end user, this
basically means a prettier interface.
- Showing play time in Skype notifications is now an option.
v1.4.1 (Not publicly released)
- Skype notifications will now display the time spent playing
the game. This only works for normal executables, and doesn't
work for Steam games, and probably never will.
v1.4
- Support for command-line arguments has now been added.
This allows you to launch games with custom settings,
e.g. send a file name to an emulator, custom resolution,
etc.
- Steam games that have arguments are now launched by
directly invoking the Steam exe instead of using the
steam:// protocol. This is simply because the Steam
protocol doesn't support command line arguments.
- Fixed a bug where some games with ampersands wouldn't
run at all.
- Cleaned up the INI-loading code.
- You can now also edit or add command-line arguments for a
game by hovering over the game in question, then clicking
'Edit command-line arguments...'.
v1.3.4
- You can now rename games by hovering over the game to
be renamed, then clicking 'Rename...'.
- You can now remove individual games by hovering over the
game to be removed from the list, then clicking 'Remove...'.
- You can now select an icon from an EXE-file when choosing
an icon for an added Steam game. This is peachy when
adding a non-Steam game to Game Launcher, as the Steam
icon folder won't contain an icon for your game!
- Reworded "Remove game..." in the Options-menu to "Remove
games...", since its primary function now is to remove
several games at once.
- Changed the selection mode of the Remove window list.
You now have to click CTRL to select additional items.
- Added some helpful text to the Remove window.
- The confirmation dialog in the Remove window will now
show the names of the games you are removing.
- Added a bunch of tool tips to menu items!
v1.3.3-rev2
- Drag and drop box now accepts Steam shortcuts, both for
regular Steam games and non-Steam games added to your
Steam library.
- Fixed a bug where GL would try to delete a Steam icon
that didn't exist upon removing a single game from the
game list, thus throwing an error.
- Reworded the menu element 'Send notifications to Skype
when starting a game' to 'Send notifications to Skype',
since it now also let's Skype know when you've stopped
playing a game.
- Completely rewrote the readme.txt, and moved the changelog
into a separate file.
v1.3.3-rev1 (Not publicly released)
- Fixed a bug where the user would be shown an error if
update server couldn't be reached.
v1.3.3
- Game Launcher now supports adding games via drag and drop.
Double click the tray icon to show a drop window, then
drop your executables or shortcuts onto this window.
This is a quick way to initially populate the list after
first install, by giving it all your desktop icons.
Nom nom nom!
v1.3.2
- Game Launcher now sends a notification to Skype when
you stop playing a game from a normal EXE. This isn't
possible to do with Steam games since we can't reliably
track which process is used by the game.
- Cleaned up the code used when running a game.
- Reworded Skype notification text:
* When you start playing a normal game:
"Currently Playing: $gameName"
* When you stop playing a normal game:
"Stopped Playing: $gameName"
* When you start playing a Steam game:
"Now Playing: $gameName (Steam)"
- Fixed a bug where games with ampersands in their names
would show as double ampersands in the Skype
notifications.
v1.3.1
- Fixed a bug with adding Steam games with ampersands
in their names.
- Cleaned up the new version check code.
- Fixed a bug where an error would pop up if the user
had Skype open but wasn't logged in.
- Fixed a bug where an error would pop up if the user
didn't allow Game Launcher to access Skype.
- Fixed an arithmetic overflow error that could occur
on both 'Add game' and 'Add Steam game'.
- Fixed a bug where the user would be shown an error
if the update server could not be reached for some
reason.
v1.3-rev1
- Fixed a bug where the user would be prompted to
update the application even though they had the
latest version.
v1.3
- Added Skype integration, defaults to disabled, can
be toggled from options menu. Enabling this will
send a notification to skype when you start
playing a game, in the form of
"Now Playing: Game Name". The setting for this
is stored in the registry under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GameLauncher.
v1.2.1
- Added an auto-updater, now you will be notified of new versions!
v1.2-rev2
- Fixed a bug where non-steam games couldn't be removed.
v1.2-rev1
- Added a fancy About-box. About time!
v1.2
- Game menu is now automatically alphabetized.
- settings.ini is now automatically alphabetized.
- Changes to the menu are now automatically saved
to disk, instead of saving on exit (old behavior).
- Stored Steam icon in steamicons-subdirectory is now
deleted when the respective game is removed from
the list
- Clearing the list now *empties* the steamicons-
subdirectory, so don't store stuff in it.
v1.1.3
- Now prompts to select an icon when adding a Steam
game. Will use default Steam icon if cancelled.
Icons are saved as BMPs in the steamicons-subdirectory
of the installed path, and are loaded from there
on subsequent restarts of the application.
v1.1.2-rev5
- Quit menu item now moved to top of main list.
v1.1.2-rev4
- 10 second close described below is reverted due to
unexpected behavior and, really, it isn't needed at
all.
v1.1.2-rev3
- Menu now appears at cursor position when invoked
through the Win+G keyboard shortcut.
- Menu now closes after 10 seconds if no action is taken.
v1.1.2-rev2
- DLLs are now embedded into the EXE.
- Some code optimizations.
v1.1.2-rev1
- Fixed a bug where the working directory might
be set wrong after launching a game.
v1.1.2
- Changed the icon drawing code to provide
high quality interpolation. This means that
the icons are no longer as ugly as they were
before.
v1.1.1
- Added option to register the launcher as a Windows
start-up application.
v1.1-rev5
- Fixed a bug where .bat-files wouldn't show
in the file browser. Also added a descriptive
title bar to the file browser.
v1.1-rev4
- Fixed a bug with adding games with an
ampersand in their name (&)
v1.1-rev3
- Removed possibility of adding custom icons for
Steam games, will now use the Steam icon itself
instead. The reason for this is that the coding
and saving infrastructure makes it hard to
implement, and it isn't really a vital function.
Custom icons were working fine, but they wouldn't
show up if the application was closed and reopened,
as they weren't saved anywhere.
v1.1-rev1
- Fixed saving problem, Game Launcher should now
save properly on exit, to the directory where
the exe is located.
v1.1
- Added support for Steam games.
v1.0
- Initial build, saving was screwed because of a
CurrentDirectory error.